Teel Time: ACC championship shows Florida State capable of Final Four

Last season, Florida State reached an NCAA regional semifinal for the first time in 18 years. Forward Bernard James, an Air Force veteran and the team’s conscience, was not pleased.

Like many, James surveyed the Seminoles’ talent and thought them capable of more. Case in point, Florida State’s Sweet 16 overtime loss to VCU, punctuated by a glaring breakdown that created the Rams’ game-winning layup.

No matter that Chris Singleton, the Seminoles’ best player and a subsequent first-round NBA draft choice, was compromised by a foot injury. And no offense to VCU. But James believes Florida State gift-wrapped the game, and he attacked the offseason accordingly.

James’ drive was contagious as the ACC’s oldest squad overcame non-conference losses to Princeton and Harvard, and a 20-point beatdown at Clemson in the league opener, to win the program’s first ACC tournament championship.

But after Sunday’s 85-82 title win over North Carolina in Atlanta, James insisted coach Leonard Hamilton’s Seminoles (24-9) are not content as they enter their fourth consecutive NCAA tournament. Not after the way things went down against VCU in San Antonio – the Rams won 72-71 on Bradford Burgess’ layup off an inbounds play with 7.1 seconds left in OT.

“When we’re playing at the top of our game, you saw what we can do today,” James said. “We had a couple minutes where we weren’t clicking, and that’s when they made their runs. But we get a 40-minute game together, where we play the type of offense and the type of defense we’re capable of, there’s nobody in the country that can beat us.”

Given the Seminoles’ penchant for turnovers (ACC-high 16.3 per game), let’s not get carried away, but they certainly have all the pieces, especially when they shoot well.

Florida State shot 49.7 percent in three ACC tournament games, 46.9 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. The accuracy against North Carolina was 58.9, best of any Tar Heels opponent this season, and 50 percent from three. Seven Seminoles scored at least nine points.

That’s what makes this Florida State edition more dangerous than last season’s. The Seminoles are deeper offensively and shoot better percentages inside and outside the arc.

Combine that with Florida State’s perennial – lock-down defense – and you have a legitimate Final Four contender. James and guard Michael Snaer, the ACC’s best clutch shooter, made the league’s five-man all-defensive team, and the Seminoles lead the conference in blocked shots and field goal percentage defense, the latter for an unprecedented fourth consecutive season.

Point guard Luke Loucks had a championship-game record 13 assists and made the decisive jumper in the semifinals against Duke as Florida State became the first since N.C. State in 1987 to beat nationally ranked Duke and North Carolina in the same ACC tournament. Reserve guard Ian Miller, whose last-minute 3-pointer beat Virginia earlier this month, scored in double figures in each ACC tournament game.

Snaer, Loucks, Miller: How many teams boast three players who have made final-minute game-winners?

“They’ve been in the situation enough times where they’ve made the wrong decision and passed up on the shot,” James said. “Every time, we tried to encourage them. ‘Dude, you’ve got to take that shot. We’ve seen you do it in practice. We know what you can do.’

“They finally bought into that. They’re not afraid of big shots because even they miss them … we’ll clean them up, we’ll get offensive rebounds, and if not, we’ll go back and get a stop on defense. …

“The type of basketball we played (in the ACC tournament), with multiple guys in double figures or close to it, that’s the type of basketball Coach Ham designed this team for. Whoever they want to double, whoever they want to focus on, there’s someone else that can beat you or hurt you and we proved that today.”

The ACC title propelled the Seminoles to a No. 3 East Regional seed, and they open play Friday in Nashville, Tenn., against 14th-seeded St. Bonaventure, surprise Atlantic-10 champion.

“I feel people finally respect Florida State as a basketball program and not overlook us,” James said “Don’t just give the ACC to Duke or Carolina from Day One, just assume one of them is going to win it, I think we’ve thrown our hat into the mix.”

I can be reached at 247-4636 or by e-mail at dteel@dailypress.com. Follow me at twitter.com/DavidTeelatDP